Liberate Your Research Blog

Scholars working within or outside the university tend to have access to radical theories about topics like abolition, decolonization, intersectionality, queer justice, disabilty justice, and beyond. Yet far less opportunity exists to learn and develop radical methodologies.  This problem has grave implications not only for scholars but also for the communities with whom scholars conduct […]

Over the years, I have been paying attention to the anxieties radical scholars face: imposter syndrome, overwhelm, and fear. Over and over, people tell me things like: I spend 50% of my writing time constrained by these anxieties.  I go through complete despair. It feels like torture. I  waste so much of my time anxious

Since I launched Liberate Your Research, one thing is now more clear to me than ever before. Radical scholars, especially interdisciplinary activist scholars, face disproportionate levels of overwhelm and anxiety in academia. Lacking go-to theories, or theoretical blueprints, contributes to these challenges. Compounding matters, fields like Cultural Studies, Ethnic Studies, and/or Gender Studies often lack

My journey to launching Liberate Your Research began more than 20 years ago when I was a graduate student in cultural anthropology. I learned quickly that academia was not immune from the culture of individualist capitalist competition and racial and class violence. I was recruited by a program seeking to “diversify” its graduate students, only to